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Rabat – A recent survey by the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies (ACRPS) published by the Doha Institute shows that 48% of Moroccans believe Morocco’s economic situation is good/very good.
The 2019-2020 Arab Opinion Index, which shared data from interviews with over 28,000 individuals from 13 Arab countries, also indicated that 47% of Morocco’s population sees the economic situation as bad/very bad. Meanwhile, 6% abstained from responding.
In a more global assessment, 41% of the Maghreb population see the economic situation in their country between good (36%) and very good (5%), while 33% see it as bad and 23% as very bad.
A recent publication by the Moroccan Institute for Policy Analysis (MIPA) showed a strong consensus in the Maghreb population that economic exchange among Maghreb countries will enhance the region’s integration.
In terms of the political situation in Arab countries, the 2019-2020 Arab Opinion Index shared more positive findings than the previous ones.
However, fewer respondents from Morocco expressed positive feelings about the country’s political situation than they did about its economic situation.
Seven percent of Moroccans believe that the political situation in Morocco is very good and 27% believe it is good, while 32% said that it is bad and 25% responded “very bad.”
Although half of Moroccans did not share a positive opinion about the political situation in Morocco, the US Department of State labels Morocco as a politically stable country, with no history of politically motivated violence or civil disturbance.
Read also: French Researchers: Morocco a ‘Pole of Stability’ in Maghreb, West Africa
The survey also assessed reasons why 22% of Arabs expressed a desire to emigrate, which involved political motivations for 12% of the concerned population.
Economic motives and goals of a better living situation were the most prevalent motivators (22% of respondents from across the Maghreb, including Morocco), followed by education (15%).
The 12% who linked their hopes of emigration with political motives attributed this to threats of other countries. Approximately 20% of Moroccans consider neighboring Arab countries to be a threat to domestic stability.
For their emigration destinations, the survey showed that 16.5% of the Maghreb population target France, followed by Israel (9.5%) and the US (7%).
For Morocco specifically, European countries are a destination for many migrants. Moroccans are the second-largest non-EU nationality present in France, with 755,400 people, or 18.4% of the total immigrant population.
Meanwhile, 9% of non-Belgians in Brussels are from Morocco, making Moroccans the third most present nationality among foreigners after French people and Romanians.
Morocco’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs shared on its Facebook page in November 2019 statistics from the Population and Immigration Authority, showing that as many as 432 Moroccan Jews had immigrated to Israel in the last eight years.
The 2019-2020 Arab Opinion Index study engaged 9,000 researchers in areas requiring 820,000 kilometers of travel, making it, according to ACRPS, the largest public opinion survey in the Arab world.
